The Girl Who Had No Enemies: And the Man Who Hated Women by Dennis Patrick Fleming

This might be one of the best books I will read all year. 

This memoir was unlike any that I have read so far. It was a mix of a true-crime novel as well as a memoir.

It is a story about the tragic death of Dennis Fleming’s sister Mickey and the man who was messed up enough to cause harm to not only their family, but countless others around the country.

It details the struggles of a hurting family torn apart by not only this tragic incident, but personal relationships and beliefs as well. No family is perfect, but this shows how a family can come together through a tragic incident even if they don’t always see eye-to-eye.

I could not put this one down. From the moment I read page one, I was hooked.

I knew what the book was about before going into it, so the first section was so bittersweet to read. It establishes Dennis’s relationship with his sister and shows the reader who she was.

Knowing that something bad was coming to her and the family made me not want to get attached, but after reading so much about her and the family, you feel like you start to really know them.

Once I got to the section about Mickey’s death, I almost called it quits. I didn’t want to read about what happened because it is just so sad, but as I said before, I was hooked.

I reluctantly turned the page, and even though I may have shed a tear or two, Dennis did such a wonderful job at writing it that I do not regret continuing. You can really just feel his emotion, and it is just heartbreaking to read.

I really liked the parts about LaRette and his past that were inserted to break up the story. It added a certain flow to the book that made the reader aware that something was going to happen, but also kept them informed. It was a nice touch that I don’t see very often. When done wrong, it could completely mess with how the story is read, but Dennis inserted those sections at just the right times and it really added to the whole reading experience.

A must-read for true crime fans.

5/5 Stars

Memorable Quote: "A feeling, pure, and as powerful as the love I felt witnessing my first child enter the world, seeing her face for the first time—a feeling that powerful crystallized like a black diamond in my heart—I had to kill a man."

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The Face of A Miracle by Jodi Sampson

The Face of A Miracle tells a touching story of finding faith through adversity.

Growing up, Jodi always wanted to have a family. She always wanted to be a mother, but this didn’t come easy for her.

Faced with the reality that she might not be able to have children after a few miscarriages, being able to birth her first child was a true godsend.

She went onto have two more children, but it never got easy.

With her youngest child, they had to face the hurtful truth of his cancer diagnosis.

He had a tumor in his head, and he was too young to have radiation treatment without serious damage to his brain.

This memoir follows their family’s struggles with basically living in the hospital, and how they kept their faith the whole way that he would be alright.

Jodi knew that God was on their side, and through the good times and the bad, she didn’t let her faith waver. She kept her spirits high, and it seemed to keep her family going.

This was a very sweet memoir with a touch of emotion as well. I felt myself getting very connected to this family and just rooting for them the whole way through. I’m not sure if that was because of how it was written, or just because of what kind of people they are (or maybe it is because hockey was involved a little bit…. Just kidding ;] )

I really liked the pictures that were inserted in the middle of the book. It added an even more personal touch to an already emotional memoir.

4.5/5 Stars. Highly recommended for people who like memoirs or books about finding your faith.

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13 Years in America by Melanie Steele

13 Years in America is a very real memoir about chasing happiness and stability in life. I also got out of it how love can conquer hardships.

After moving from Canada to America and getting married, Melanie and her husband chase after the American Dream.

But it isn’t always as great as it sounds.

Never happy settling in one place, they move from town-to-town and state-to-state trying to find a place that suits their lives and opportunities for financial stability.

Along the way, Melanie decides to go back to school to finish her degree. It takes up most of her time because she is dedicated to being the best. She loves doing the research and writing out her thoughts into fantastic academic papers, and even gets one published.

This doesn’t help to solve the financial situation, though.

When she decides to go to grad school, she and her husband decide it is a great time for them to start their new life as a young family. That way, he can stay home with their child while she is in school since she will be making a little bit of money. He will not have to worry about finding a job and being unhappy, and their child will never have to be taken care of by anyone except a parent. It seems like a fool-proof plan.

As time passes, the finances never become ideal, but they get along. They are happy as a family, and sometimes that is what needs to be focused on in order to get by. There are tough times along the way, but they endure it with love and positive thinking.

This book is very well written. It all flows nicely together, which makes it very easy and entertaining to read. The dialogue fit well with the rest of the story. It didn’t seem forced or out of place.

The story is very enjoyable as well. Not everything in life can be easy, but you can get through it if you have hope and are surrounded by people that love you.

I really liked reading Melanie’s story. Anyone who enjoys memoirs will enjoy it too I believe.

4/5 stars.

Memorable quotes: “I look out at the two different countries that make up this beautiful, serene landscape, and I’m struck for some reason that the two sides look exactly the same. Two different countries, but water just flows into water, and one island looks exactly the same as the other.”

“I try to push the memories from my mind. I need to look forward instead of back, I remind myself. I take two deep breaths, and that helps. I feel better with each passing moment.”

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Memoir March

Memoir March was kicked off with Tomato Stakes by Melanie Jo Moore!

Upcoming titles to look out for:

13 Years in America by Melanie Steele

Follow the Joy by Jason Kurtz

Daddy Was a Punk Rocker by Adam Sharp

The Girl Who Had No Enemies by Dennis Fleming

and

The Face of a Miracle by Jodi Sampson!

I am excited to get through all of them, and from the looks of it, you all will enjoy them too!

-Courtney

Tomato Stakes by Melanie Jo Moore

Tomato Stakes is a sequel to Letters to Young Chong.

Melanie has many more crazy stories to share with her readers in this one.

If you read Letters to Young Chong, you know of her interesting obsession with a Mexican man named Julio.

Much of this books details the ups and downs of their times together. Just like everything else in her life, it just can’t go as she planned and it cant be easy.

There is a lot of alcohol, a lot of karaoke, and a lot of tequila insanity.

Some people have lives that are meant for memoirs, and Melanie’s is one of them. I often found myself laughing out loud while reading part two of her memoir series. 

She has a very entertaining and engaging writing style that makes it easy for the reader to not put the book down. I often said “One more chapter. . ., “ and it would turn in to two or three chapters before I could put it down.

Read Letters to Young Chong first. If you enjoy it as much as I did, you have to read this one too.

It is really funny even though you may feel like yelling at her decisions from time to time.

I can't wait to see where she takes us next. 

4.5/5 Stars. Sometimes you just need to laugh at someone else. This is a perfect book to help you do that.

Memorable quote: "Remember our discussion on diagnosing insanity.   A key component I forgot to mention was that the insane will make sudden and rash decisions, even when they made a perfectly rational one SECONDS ago."

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Summer of the Beast by Michael Burns

Two detectives get put on a case that involves a string of mind-boggling, gruesome murders.

Hidden up in the mountains on Arizona, these crime scenes are unlike anything these two men have seen. The bodies are ripped apart in a way that seem only a large animal can pull off. The thing is, there is no trail. There are no clues that anything disrupted the two campsites turned murder scenes.

Palmer and Rivera make a good detective partnership. Kino Rivera has a Native American background, and his father taught him from a young age to get in tune with his environment in order to search for animals and hunt. He brings the most unique aspect to the Police Department and to the case. When his special skills also fail in locating a trail to lead them towards a suspect, they know something really weird and unexplainable is going on up in the mountains.

Once Rivera finds a footprint, the case becomes even weirder. What type of animal leaves only one print?

They team up to try to bring this creature down themselves, but end up being rescued by the military and debriefed on what is actually going on.

They will never be the same.

One thing I really liked about this book all along is how it made me feel reading it. It legitimately freaked me out and even made me scared at times in the beginning because of how weird the case was. There aren’t many books that I have read that actually freaked me out to the degree of a well-made horror movie.

That being said, this book didn’t go in the direction I thought it was going to take.

I thought it was going to be more of a paranormal mystery than anything. I felt like that is how it was set up because it was so crazy.

The ending seemed like a movie to me. I could picture it in my mind while I was reading it, and it seems like something that would round out a movie.

It keeps you wondering after you have finished it though. There is one conclusion to the story, but then the ending blows it wide open again with so many more possibilities.

Even though it is kind of open-ended, I am glad that it was left this way. The story doesn’t need to be dragged out longer. The story that needed to be told was told, and a sequel wouldn’t be as good.

I really liked the characters in this book. They all worked really well together and the relationships didn’t seem to be forced. It was a nice added dimension to the book with all of the dialogue that it had.

4/5 stars. I thought the relationship story line was a little unnecessary, but it wasn’t a major distraction from the main story.

Memorable quotes:

“All the textbooks say that when a serial killer starts killing and gets a taste for blood, they don’t stop killing. They never stop until they get caught, or they die.”

“This part of the desert was absolutely surreal and as he looked out upon it, dozens of questions flooded his mind, but none of the questions had an answer.”

“This is a time of great danger and violence. This will be the summer of the beast.”

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